This little site is a gem, not only because it has kitschy Bible action figures, but because you can buy light or dark skinned versions of each character. Being a white boy myself, I was looking at the light skinned characters, and settled on my favorite: David, the shepherd. Obviously, they're all, mistakenly, white, but apparently, the man after God's own heart was Aryan. Sorry that the quality's not better. The site didn't provide a very large image. I wonder why.

If David is Aryan, then Moses is positively albino!I love the idea of Job as an action figure. He really is a hero of faith, but I can't imagine many kids wanting to play Job. On the other hand, Adam & Eve? Let's see, what are they remembered for? I know you can't have them naked for kids' toys, of course, but don't the leaf outfits capture them in their darkest hours, sinners ashamed & hiding? Then again, the company claims that they want kids to be able to identify with the people in the Bible.And isn't the white Jesus just creepy?

And the "dark-skinned" Eve baffles me. She seems to be several shades lighter than all the other characters in the set.

I don't know if it's racism or even racial pride so much as artistic philosophy expressed at the "Train up a Child" site. In a desire for people to identify with the Bible characters, we make them look like "us," rather than striving for historical accuracy. Europeans have been doing it in religious art for ages, which is why there's a bunch of white guys at DaVinci's Last Supper or pretty much any other classic work of religious art. God made us in his image, and we are returning the favor in a rather idolatrous fashion.I would hope that I could identify with Jesus and other Biblical figures based on something other than racial similarity!And why is Jesus wearing clothes in that vomitous (I'm just not a romantic, I guess) Adam & Eve picture? When Adam & Eve walked with God in the cool of the day, is this the way they saw him? "Um, Lord, why are you wrapped in white stuff like that?"

Who Is This Guy?

Kitsch

A derogatory term used to describe works created specifically in order to pander to public demand. In this case, Christian demand for cutesy knick-knacks and other pseudo-spiritual items. I feel like the word 'kitschy' could describe a lot of the contemporary Christian church. We're converting the world, one t-shirt at a time.